CITY BALLET REVIEW

CITY BALLET REVIEW; Whiffs of 'Carousel' Perfume a Love Duet

By ANNA KISSELGOFF

Published: February 25, 2003

Christopher Wheeldon's ''Carousel (a Dance)'' was originally announced as a a piece d'occasion. It was not scheduled to be performed again after its premiere at the New York City Ballet's November gala, part of the Richard Rodgers Centennial.

Wisdom triumphs over folly. Mr. Wheeldon's ballet was too terrific not to be seen again, and it was spliced into the start of the company's final week on Saturday night at the New York State Theater. There will be an additional performance on Friday, led again by Alexandra Ansanelli and Benjamin Millepied, who has replaced the injured Damian Woetzel from the original cast.

Away from the trappings of a mammoth gala, ''Carousel (a Dance)'' comes across on two levels. It is a powerful distillation of the troubled romance in ''Carousel,'' the 1945 musical by Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Yet it is not a dance-drama. It is, rather, a pure-dance ballet in which inventive choreography is virtually more important than the emotions conveyed. As such it is an impressionistic essay on certain themes, not the equivalent of a complete tome. The paradox is that what is on view is so enriching that one hungers for more: too good to be enough.

The ruling image is astonishingly evocative. As an ensemble circles the stage and picks up speed, a fearful young woman in yellow and a young man, hands in his pockets and red kerchief around his neck, are isolated from a merry-go-round and its merriment. Within the exuberance that spreads across the stage with centrifugal and hysterical force, they find each other in a poignant if uneasy love duet.

As its title indicates, ''Carousel (a Dance)'' is primarily a dance, not a narrative ballet. Its whiff of a story is a subtext that breaks through formal metaphors, in floor patterns and the love duet, one of the finest in contemporary ballet. There are also the emotions associated with the musical's score.

Mr. Wheeldon has turned to William David Brohn's orchestration and arrangement for Nicholas Hytner's production of ''Carousel,'' seen in 1994 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater; the ''Carousel Waltz'' is heard at the beginning and toward the end. There is also music from the second-act ballet sequence and wordless versions of ''If I Loved You'' and ''Soliloquy,'' which Billy Bigelow, the musical's antihero, sings when he learns he is about to become a father.

Mr. Millepied has had a brilliant season, seemingly ubiquitous in the many roles that are properly his own and in debuts to replace the inordinate number of male dancers who have been injured this winter.

It is easy to see him as a dancer most at home in the air, exciting the audience with his pyrotechnics, his soaring leaps and his speed. In his quieter moments, he is very much a romantic lead, totally absorbed in his partner. If Mr. Woetzel seemed consumed by desire in the duet with Ms. Ansanelli, Mr. Millepied was all tender ardor while still retaining something of the bad boy in the beginning.

Here, he is at the center of two concentric circles of men and women in Holly Hynes's dazzling purple and red costumes. A transparent scrim with an image of a ferris wheel has been raised to reveal him as the carousel barker. Garlands of Christmas lights have now been added to the backdrop.

Two couples, Rachel Rutherford and Arch Higgins, Pascale van Kipnis and Seth Orza, burst out of the group, amplifying a love theme with other pairs in dissolving patterns and a waltz. Mr. Millepied is alone at the center, Ms. Ansanelli, wondrous in her crystalline dancing is on the fringe.

Their love duet begins with tentative caresses but as Ms. Ansanelli drops backward, holding her partner by his waist as he faces the rear, the pair becomes swept up into more daring lifts, leaps, tosses and swoons. He kisses her and runs out before a final reunion as the waltzing couples return. Suddenly a carousel snaps into place. The women, each astride a man's shoulder, hold poles as their steeds rise and sink: a gimmicky image that works. Andrea Quinn conducted superbly

The evening included George Balanchine's effervescent and short ''Tarantella,'' in which the teenage prodigies Daniel Ulbricht and Megan Fairchild pulled out all the stops successfully. Mr. Ulbricht takes the emphatic approach (he broke his tambourine) and gets away with it. Ms. Fairchild has speed, piquancy and good toe work.

A word is also in order for the sensational performance that Mr. Millepied, Janie Taylor and Sébastien Marcovici gave earlier in the week in Peter Martins's ''Hallelujah Junction'' to John Adams's music. It is an elegant ''leotard'' ballet, with two fine pianists (Richard Moredock and Cameron Grant) virtually swallowed up onstage in the dark beauty of Mark Stanley's lighting.

Photo: Alexandra Ansanelli and Benjamin Millepied evoke a troubled romance in ''Carousel (a Dance)'' by New York City Ballet. (Paul Kolnik/New York City Ballet)